Notre Dame Associate Professor of Law Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer was elected to sit on the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law’s (NCPL) Board of Advisors. The NCPL, established 20 years ago, is one of the most prestigious research centers on philanthropy in the nation. The Board of Advisors includes both leading academics and non-academic leaders in the field.

William K. Kelley, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, offers an expert opinion on Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

University of Notre Dame Professor of Law and of Theology Cathleen Kaveny told the Times, “I don’t think there is any one Catholic stance on the law. Catholicism is a big tent, so different people are drawn to different aspects of it. A Dorothy Day Catholic is going to be different than an Opus Dei Catholic.”

In an op-ed in The Boston Globe, Notre Dame Professor of Law William Kelley offers his thoughts on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court, and addresses the need for a thorough vetting of the nominee by the Senate.

University of Notre Dame Professor of Law Richard Garnett spoke with Tom Ashbrook of National Public Radio’s “On Point” about Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s pick to replace Justice on the United States Supreme Court.

Donald Kommers, Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, USA, and the author of the leading English textbook on the constitutional law of the Federal Republic delivered a talk on the history of the past sixty years of the Basic Law before the American Academy in Berlin; in his lecture, he compared it with the American experience in a consistent and clear manner. According to Kommers

Notre Dame Associate Professor of Law Carter Snead recently spoke to an assembly of judges about the use of neuroimaging evidence in the courtroom in civil and criminal contexts. His talk was part of the Judicial Seminar on Emerging Issues in Neuroscience, held at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at Notre Dame, spoke with the “National Catholic Register” for an article about the use of harsh interrogation techniques by the United States military. The full article appears in the May 17 edition of the publication.

Notre Dame Professor of Law Donald P. Kommers will deliver the George H. W. Bush and Axel Springer Lecture at the American Academy in Berlin on “Change and Continuity in German Constitutionalism: 1949-2008” on Wednesday, May 6. Kommers holds the George H.W. Bush and Axel Springer residential fellowship in the Academy.

Jose Reyes Ferriz graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 1988, and is currently mayor of Juarez, Mexico, a city embroiled in violence perpetrated largely by Mexican drug cartels. A recent ABC News “Nightline” report described Ferriz as “an honest man. He’s also a man with a price on his head, who drug traffickers would love to see dead.”

Notre Dame Professor of Law Richard Garnett will spend the next two weekends at Princeton University and The Catholic University of America participating in programs about religion and the law and religion and legal education.

Nell Jessup Newton, most recently chancellor and dean of the Hastings College of the Law at the University of California, has been appointed as the new Joseph A. Matson Dean of the University of Notre Dame Law School by Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the University’s president.

The “New York Times” worked with Notre Dame Associate Clinical Professor of Law Judy Fox to document a growing phenomenon in the foreclosure crisis: banks walking away from foreclosed homes and leaving the former owners liable for ongoing maintenance and other costs.

Timothy Endicott, dean of the law faculty and professor of legal philosophy at the University of Oxford, will deliver the keynote lecture for the 2009 Natural Law Institute at Notre Dame Law School (NDLS). Endicott’s talk is titled, “Habeas Corpus and Guantanamo Bay: A View from Abroad.” The lecture is sponsored by the American Journal of Jurisprudence at NDLS, and takes place Thursday, April 2 at 4 p.m. in room 3130 of the Eck Hall of Law.

As part of its Advisory Committee Meeting, the CCHR will present a panel discussion entitled “The Obama Administration’s Record on Human Rights and Terrorism: The First Sixty Days”. Panelists include Steven M. Watt, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program and graduate of the Center for Civil and Human Rights LL.M. program and Doug Cassel, Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. The presentation will begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be held in the Faculty Meeting Room (Room 2130) in the Eck Hall of Law.

The Hispanic Law Students Association at Notre Dame Law School celebrated excellence in the Hispanic legal community with the 14th annual Graciela Olivarez Award ceremony. The May 21 event took place in Notre Dame’s Eck Hall of Law.

Douglass Cassel, Notre Dame Professor of Law and director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR), and Sean O’Brien, Assistant Director of the CCHR and concurrent assistant professor of law, are in Guatemala this week to learn more about alleged human rights abuses by a mining company in that country.

One unprecedented result of President Obama’s decision to abolish restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research is that the U.S. government now compels taxpayers to promote research involving the creation, use and destruction of human embryos, according to O. Carter Snead, associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame.

Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law Mary Ellen O’Connell was recently named Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. O’Connell will retain her position at the Law School, which she has held since 2005.

Notre Dame Professor of Law Vincent Rougeau was invited to participate in one of London’s best-known forums—The Cheapside Debates—on Tuesday, March 10 at the St. Mary le Bow Church. The Cheapside Debates form a regular program of nine debates each year on matters of public and faith interest, usually chaired by the Reverend Jeremy Caddick, dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Douglass Cassel, Notre Dame Professor of Law and director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, says the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant today for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir “may have serious diplomatic consequences, as several African governments have publicly suggested that they may reassess their support for the ICC if the warrant issues.” This is the first-ever arrest warrant for a sitting head of state issued by the ICC. Bashir was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.